Ways to Find Freelance Writing Jobs

Are you interested in working from home and becoming a freelance writer?

I’ve been a freelance writer for over five years now and I get asked a lot about where to find freelance writing jobs.

And not just any gigs. Good quality freelance writing gigs.

I know when I first started, I was obsessed with landing my first client. I had no clue what I was doing; I was a stay-at-home mom who decided to leap into freelance writing full-force…well, part-time full force…from scratch.

So, you know what I ended up doing? I stalked other freelance writers. I went to their websites, looked at where they were writing, read blog post after blog post, made a ton of mistakes along the way, but eventually found how to attract high-paying clients.

But, you don’t have to do that. I’ve found 20 ways a beginner can land freelance writing work. And good writing work too! I’ll go through each of them in detail for you today!

If you’re just thinking about freelance writing, bookmark this post and come back to it when you’re ready to take action.

1. Start Cold Pitching

Do you know cold pitching is a fabulous way to land recurring gigs? There’s much less competition and you’ll have a better chance at landing a gig when you contact clients directly.

What is cold pitching?

It’s when you contact bloggers, entrepreneurs, companies, small businesses or startups and let them know how you – a freelance writer – can help grow their business.

Yes, I know, it sounds hard (and scary) doesn’t it? Especially if you’re brand new to freelance writing. But, you know what? It’s totally easy to do.

First you need to locate businesses to cold pitch to. Maybe you noticed they don’t have a blog – but should. Or, on Twitter you see they are trying to grow their online presence and you think your content can help with that.

Once you locate these places, all you have to do is draft up a cold pitch and send it off!

In your pitch make sure to include:

How you found out about them

Who you are

How you can help them

2. Pitch to a Job Board Ad

If you’re new to freelance writing and you want to find quality jobs, responding to job ads is your best bet. It’s also the main way many new writers use for finding consistent work.

And it’s something I tell my course students to do as it helps you gain confidence as a new freelance writer.

A bonus to using job boards over a freelance market place like Upwork or Guru to find a writing gig, is there isn’t any bidding. Entrepreneurs, small businesses, and start-ups post job ads to freelance writing job boards and you pitch to these ads.

Sometimes you are asked to give your rate; other times the job ad specifies a starting rate for content.

While there are paid job boards you can use, I would suggest you first start using free job boards. I was able to find my first freelance writing job writing 800-word blog posts for $100 on a free job board.

Here are the job boards to start pitching to:

Problogger

Blogging Pro

Canadian Freelance Writing (you don’t need to be Canadian to apply to these jobs)

All Freelance Writing Job Board

Contena

Check out my step-by-step guide on an insanely fast way to find freelance writing jobs using job boards.

3. Follow Tweets From Job Boards

Did you know social media can be a goldmine for landing gigs? I didn’t know either until it happened to me several times. Twitter is a great place to find freelance writing jobs quickly and it’s a great way to build relationships with potential clients.

And by following certain freelance writing job boards you won’t be hard-pressed trying to land a gig during a dry spell. For example, I found this tweet recently:

tweet-job

Want to know which job boards I follow:

4. Ask Friends, Family and Work

Okay, this may be a no-brainer, but you never know until you ask! Before you make your leap into freelance writing, let your friends and family know.

Doing this can help secure your first samples as a new writer. Your friend or family member may need you to edit their résumé or just write an ad for their flower shop.

When you decide to quit your 9-5 job to do freelance writing full-time, let your work and coworkers know. They may end up being your first client and can provide you with your first testimonial!

It’s also important to be ready at all times for potential writing gigs in your day-to-day life. This means creating business cards that you can quickly give to friends and family.

You may also end up finding another writer in your town! I’ve met two freelance writers where I live and meet up with one of them regularly!

5. Use Your Website

The best way to attract high-paying clients is to have a professional looking website. But, if you are just starting out, this may not be an option for you right off the bat.

Maybe you have a personal blog that you’ve built during your spare time. You can definitely use your site to offer your freelance writing services…in the beginning.

Eventually, though, to really ramp up your business you’ll want to invest in a self-hosted WordPress site and create a professional looking writer website.

*Check out my super simple, techy-free step-by-step tutorial to start a blog for your business (there’s even a video to show you how to start your website).

Don’t think a brand spanking new writer can do this?

Just take a look at my course participants’ websites after taking my complete freelance writing course:

And if you want to get away from churning out 500 word posts for a measly $20, this is the route you go. I teach in-depth the precise pages to have on your site and the type of copy that attracts prospects in my course – since I know having a strong writer website is essential to a successful business.

6. Guest Post (For Free!)

The quickest answer is that when you guest post on popular sites hundreds and thousands of people will see your writing.

And you can bet one of those viewers is a potential client. For me, this is how I was able to first build my portfolio and eventually land more clients.

Pitching to job ads is great, but if you don’t have a good set of samples – especially from pieces published on other people’s sites – it will be hard to land a quality client, but not impossible.

I didn’t have any published articles or samples when I landed my first quality writing gig, so it can happen, but it’s difficult.

So, where do you guest post? It’s up to you. You can do a quick Google search, “niche + write for us” and see what happens.

This is the result for, “parent blog + write for us”

parent-blogs

Visit their guest post guidelines and pitch your post idea!

And don’t forget to spend a few minutes drafting your author bio. This is the best piece of copy you have to convince readers to come over to your site. I use several different author bios depending on where I am guest posting. For example, for my guest post over on Successful Blogging, I wrote:

Elna Cain is a freelance writer. She writes for Blogging Wizard, PageWiz, WPKube and more. She works closely with B2C and B2B businesses providing blog writing, ghostwriting and copywriting services. Not quite sure freelance writing is for you? Why not try her totally free course, Get Paid to Write Online!

7. Network With Other Freelance Writers

You know, the best thing you can do for your new freelance writing biz is to network with other writers. Remember, we are all in this together and it isn’t a competition!

When I first started, I reached out to a few freelance writers (that I was stalking at the time!) and asked them their opinion on a starting rate. While most said go with your gut, I was grateful for their interaction and their patience with my numerous questions.

A few months later, I had freelance writers refer work to me! How amazing was that? In fact, one writer introduced me to my ideal client and I can’t thank her enough!

And now, when I’m swamped and can’t take on more freelance writing work, I offer my course students first dibs on potential jobs! It’s a win-win when you network.

So, if you’ve been following a freelance writer – ahem, me! – go ahead and reach out them.

8. Start Warm Pitching

Hold up! Didn’t I start this post by telling you to cold pitch and now I want you to start warm pitching. What gives?

Well, to maximize your chances at landing a quality writing gig, you need to work both ends – indirect and direct approaches.

While cold pitching is a direct way to land work, warm pitching, on the other hand, is a more indirect and slower way. It all centers around creating relationships with brands and business.

For example, when I find a business in my niche, I follow them and Like their Facebook fan page. That way I can keep an eye on them and engage with their posts when I can.

So, if they tweet out a post on their blog, I’ll read it and then respond in hopes of getting on a prospect’s radar:

Over time, I will nurture this relationship and then I’ll formally introduce who I am and inquire about a writing gig.

9. Say You’re For Hire

How easy is this? If you have a social media profile – which you should! – advertise that you’re for hire. It seems obvious but many new freelance writers don’t state whether or not they are for hire.

Prospects won’t know if you have time to take on more clients so when you tell them you are for hire, it just makes it easier for them to consider you.

Also, it lets other freelance writers know that you are available for writing work.

Early on when I first started freelance writing, I was lucky enough to land a writing job from simply saying I was for hire. A prospect messaged me on LinkedIn and told me another writer had referred me to him.

I had no clue who this writer was, so I messaged her back and asked how my name came up in their conversation. She had replied by saying my “for hire” signature had alerted her that I was looking for work! Presto, landed a gig!

for-hire

10. Visit Local Printing and Design Companies

Another great way to land consistent work is to contact your local printing and web design companies. Sure, you can go to your business district and let the local dentist or local pet shop owner know that you’re a writer for hire, but this takes a lot of time out of your day.

A quick way around this is to visit only web design companies and let them know there’s a writer available. These businesses have a full roster of clients that need web content.

This is what I did early on in my freelance writing career and it’s helped with finding consistent work.

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https://nikerosherunshoes.org.uk/how-to-write-a-eulogy/

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https://amherstblock.com/freelance-healthcare-jobs/

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